Dubai Marathon 2016
“The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential…these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.”
When you start to push your limits, your muscles react accordingly and that change involves a lot of pain in the beginning. When I decided to graduate from 5 km to half marathon to a full marathon, I kept pivoting my routine to prepare my body for my dream run – my first ever full marathon.
I picked Dubai for my full marathon. It was a random choice and I registered a year in advance so that I get ample time to train and prepare my body for the run.
But life never goes as planned now, is it?
While following my training regime, an unfortunate incident put a huge question mark on whether I will be able to have my first marathon or not.
I suffered an L5 disc bulge that kept tapping the S1 root nerve sending shooting pains from the back to glutes to knee and foot. The pain was terrible as the injury was not a single-day mishap. The problem accumulated over the course of weeks and raised the red flag only in November 2015. This is when standing in an upright position was a huge struggle and I was put to complete bed rest for the majority of my time.
This happened two months before the run. At a time, when I should have been strategizing how to go about my run. What changes I need to make in my sleep, diet, and training pattern, I was literally struggling to get better and be able to get a green flag from my doctor to at least participate in the marathon.
“Never give up on something that you can’t go a day without thinking about.” – Winston Churchill
I visited multiple physiotherapists and got the right set of workouts and treatments to cure the pain. The sleepless nights where the pain was my only companion, the only thought that kept me headstrong was the thought of touching the finish line in the Dubai marathon.
I shifted my focus to back and core strength and continue doing rehab exercises. Ran with kinesiology tapes around my back but it was not very helpful as the pain would give me jitters every time I tried to stretch myself beyond a limit.
“There is no failure except in no longer trying.” – Elbert Hubbard
For the first time, I was in the dark as far as my body is concerned. For someone who has taken on fitness pretty early in his life, this was one of the biggest lows of my life, one that taught me more than I could imagine. I had no idea what to expect out of my body while I was preparing my mind for the worst if at all I decide to go for the Dubai marathon.
I wasn’t even sure if I would be able to make it to the finish line or not but I knew it in my heart I do not want to give up sitting in my home. I definitely wanted to give it a shot and either complete the race or fail trying but I did not want to declare the results even before the exam started. And so I decided to go for the marathon.
Fortunately for me, I got tagged alongside a debut marathon runner and I bonded with him really well when I first met him. I got the much-needed push from which helped me take my mind off my injury and so I decided to not think much about it and leave everything to fate.
“Believe you can and you are halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt
Dubai definitely was a daring choice as the weather is extremely hot and you need to conquer the straight long tar routes. I never knew the concept of mirage which I studied in the school will come screaming back in this form. As I started my run, the mind started to play tricks with me and the next milestone seemed so close but yet it was too far. Trust me, after a point, it tends to break your spirit.
The run began in the wee hours and was a happy ride till I hit the 25kms mark. After that, the temperature started to rise and the tinkering pain at 6, 15, 20, 25 km kept reminding me of my prevailing condition. But I was not ready to give up yet. And with a bit of determination, I made it to the 35 km mark and that is where the worst time of life began.
My right foot froze on me slowing down my pace drastically. I knew I had to wait for a muscle release so that I continue my run at a neutral pace. But life is never that simple. The curveball I was facing was trickier than I thought. Slowly my left leg, lower back, and neck froze on me too.
The pain slowly started increasing and reached a point that I saw myself screaming with agony. I stopped and leaned against a pillar to stretch my legs a bit. This helped a bit but I literally had to drag myself on the route. This was the point, I felt that my body can’t take it anymore. I even told myself that it is time to call the ambulance so that it can carry it to the finish line and I can close this painful chapter and move on with my life. But something in me kept pushing me to go on.
“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius
“Just one more step. Another minute. You can do this. Don’t give up just yet. Just give it some more time,” were some of the thoughts that helped me kept going. And so I lived through the moment and dragged myself for 1 km in 30-40 minutes. It was just this moment that all my hard work decided to pay off as all the pain and fatigue mysteriously disappeared, my muscles unlocked and my body felt light weighted.
I am not much of a believer but I guess this experience changed me. Post the 37th km, all I had in mind was to touch the finish line and collapse. So I slowly tried to make up for the lost time and caught up my pace slowly. The last few km were emotional for me and as I touched the finish line, I was in tears. Now, these tears were not because of pain but sheer happiness that I did what I wanted to do. I guess that day I truly achieved the zen mode and running for me became a meditation in itself.
As a part of the RunMonks community we whole heartedly salute Yuvaraj Patil for keeping the focus with all the grit and determination and completing the Dubai marathon. And being the catalyst in driving the idea of – “Pushing the Limits”
RunMonks a platform powered by 505 Circle created by Kushagra Sharma is proud to be associated with Yuvaraj Patil for being the flag bearer of our philosophy which is “Develop awareness of oneself” and GETTING INTO THE #ZENMODE & TO BE THE #RUNMONKER
